Floribunda – a new exhibition curated by renowned artist David Sequeira, will explore the enduring connection between humans and flowers and the influences of flowers across art, premieres at Bunjil Place Gallery on 29 March 2025.
A major partnership between the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and Bunjil Place, Floribunda brings together over 150 works from within one of Australia’s most important collections, marking one of the largest single loans in the history of the NGV.
Spanning painting, ceramics, photography, bark painting, sculpture, installation art, jewellery, textiles, printmaking, drawing and fashion, the exhibition highlights flowers as a persistent subject in a range of art practices, histories and movements,
Floribunda features works by international and Australian artists, creatives and designers, including Azuma Makoto, John Brack, Arthur Streeton, Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington-Smith, Jim Dine, Lorraine Barber, Deanne Gilson, Trevor Nickolls, Akira Isogawa, Carla Zampatti, Paul McCann and Yves Saint Laurent.
A hybrid of ‘abundance’ and ‘flower’ in Latin, Floribunda draws attention to our fascination with flowers and their presence in many pivotal moments, from births, deaths, romances, marriages to religious rituals, and other rites of passage.
“My first love as an artist and a curator is being with people as they create a place for art in their lives. It is a joy and an honour to be the link between Bunjil Place’s audience and the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria,” said Curator of Floribunda, David Sequeira.
“I visited the NGV as a seven-year-old and I could not believe that there was an entire building dedicated to art. I never imagined that more than 50 years later that I would be working with that same collection to curate Floribunda.”
Specially conceived for Bunjil Place Gallery, Floribunda is designed by Studio Peter King (Pharaoh, NGV, 2024), in the theme of a rose blooming with unfolding petals. The centre of the exhibition includes the installation Block Flowers (2023), from the A Chaotic Garden project, 2023, by celebrated Japanese flower artist Azuma Makoto. On loan for the first time since its Australian debut at the 2023 NGV Triennial, the work consists of 130 plant specimens, collected at their visual peak and suspended in resin.
Further highlights include a suite of ten paintings, Before Joseph Banks, Our Baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge (2022), by Wadawurrung woman and multidisciplinary visual artist Dr Deanne Gilson, paired with twenty prints selected from the monumental folio of coloured engravings, Bank’s Florilegium, drawn 1770-1784 and printed in 1981, by renowned botanist Sir Joseph Banks, centering First Nations knowledge of plants and pushing colonial understandings to the periphery.
American artist Jim Dine’s series of twenty-seven black and white prints The Temple of Flora (published 1984), which is interspersed with verses of Sufi poetry to suggest that flowers are an earthly means of accessing divinity.
The fashion in Floribunda has been curated to highlight two important approaches to design associated with flowers, namely a sculptural approach and a decorative approach. Linda Jackson’s Flame waratah (1984), for Sydney based fashion house Bush Couture, exemplifies the sculptural approach in which the garment envelopes the model in a flower-like form.
Paul Vasileff’s Dress, The Snow Maiden collection (autumn-winter 2016), for Adelaide fashion house Paolo Sebastian demonstrates the decorative approach in which floral motif is woven and/or embroidered into the fabric alongside baroque flourishes as an embellishment to the form of the body and structure of the garment.
Other garments featured in the exhibition are by celebrated Australian and international designers including Akira Isogawa, Carla Zampatti, Yves Saint Laurent and Jean Patou.
Floribunda is the first collaboration between Bunjil Place and the NGV, and is one of the largest in a series of NGV partnerships with Victorian public galleries, focused on sharing the treasures of the Permanent Collection with wider audiences.
“From Dutch still-life paintings to contemporary haute couture, Floribunda explores the timeless beauty and enduring appeal of floral imagery across place, culture and artforms,” said NGV Director, Tony Ellwood AM.
“With works drawn exclusively from the NGV Collection – including those by Yves Saint-Laurent, Grace Cossington-Smith, Nora Heysen, Arthur Streeton and more – this exhibition presents a wonderful opportunity to share the State collection with the City of Casey.”
“We’re incredibly grateful to our presenting partner, Bunjil Place, for their collaboration on this important exhibition for the local community, as well as AWM Electrical for their support of our regional touring program,” said Mr Ellwood.
FLORIBUNDA
Bunjil Place Gallery, 2 Patrick NE Dr, Narre Warren
Exhibition: 29 March – 20 July 2025
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.bunjilplace.com.au for details.
Images: Azuma Makoto, Block flowers 2023 from the A Chaotic Garden project, 2023. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with funds donated by Bagôt Gjergja Foundation, Andrew Penn AO and Kallie Blauhorn, Michael Buxton AM and Janet Buxton, Paul and Samantha Cross, Anthony and Clare Cross, Cameron Oxley and Bronwyn Ross, and Woods5 Foundation, 2024 © Azuma Makoto | Grace Cossington Smith, Still life with ranunculi, 1926. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Gift from the Estate of Brian Myddleton Davis AM, 2022 © Estate of Grace Cossington Smith | Deanne Gilson, Before Joseph Banks, Our Baskets and Plants Held Sacred Knowledge, 2022. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2023 © Deanne Gilson | Paolo Sebastian, Adelaide (fashion house) and Paul Vasileff (designer) Dress 2016 from The Snow Maiden collection, autumn- winter, 2016. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2019